Monday Memories: Did I ever tell you about MY RECORDER DAYS?

Did you ever have a time in your life when you really were free to do anything you wanted? Not like free to jet to Paris, or buy a new car. I mean free to just be who you are and not care what anyone else thought about it?

I'm pretty fortunate in that I seem to have been born without the "worrying what other people think" gene. Even so, there are a few times in my life when I had just the right combination of time on my hands, and friends who were similarly genetically afflicted, so we could fully develop whatever quirky behaviors we wanted to.

When I was in my sophomore year of college, my friend Melanie had to learn to play the recorder as part of her early education degree. I had sort of learned to play in fifth grade, and as luck would have it our friend Sara had played all her life as her mother was involved in some sort of recorder ensemble.

Recorders are cheap, a decent plastic one is still under $10, so it's the perfect instrument for college kids to get into. We became mad for recorders, and we never went anywhere without them. We started playing medieval trios and any other music we could find, often treating complete strangers to a concert when we'd finally gotten the hang of a piece. We got together to drink wine and play recorders. We played recorders while waiting for classes to start. We would run over to friends' houses to play for them when the mood struck us. You get the picture.

I'm sure we were seen as weird, if not downright annoying to some people. But, we didn't care, and that was the beauty of it. Somehow after having been told our whole lives you have to do this, that or the other to fit in (and never quite making it) we'd reached a point where fitting in didn't even enter the equation.

And, ironically, we were popular in a strange way. Everyone knew us, and people would come up and talk to us. Apparently, the key to fitting in is to not fit in, but to do it in a memorable way? I still don't know.

What I do know what that every day then seemed filled with promise, something new to be accomplished, fun to be had, music to be played. The recorder is really the only instrument I've approached mastery on, and that's because instead of grinding through lessons, I played around with friends until I got it. So, when I got the chance to join the FFMB, and she asked what instrument we all want to play, I started thinking about those fun days again.

So, if you'll excuse me, I've dug out my recorder and I need to brush up on my J'ai du bon tabac, if you please. (audio)


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